Bayer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, is reportedly done with advertising on Fox News programs hosted by conservative commentators Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.
Ads for products sold by the German aspirin maker will no longer appear on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “The Ingraham Angle,” two of the cable television network’s prime-time opinion programs, ThinkProgress co-founder Jeff Legum reported Thursday in his Popular Information newsletter.
Citing an individual “familiar with Bayer’s decision-making,” the report said the drug giant cut ties with the programs amid both hosts facing criticism over recent comments.
Representatives for neither Bayer nor Fox News immediately returned requests for comment.
Mr. Legum, a journalist and former Democratic political staffer, drew attention to Bayer earlier in the week on Twitter by noting that the company had recently resumed advertising on Mr. Carlson’s show.
“Following a series of xenophobic, bigoted, and misogynist comments by Tucker Carlson, @Bayer has not advertised on his show for months,” he said during Monday night’s broadcast in a tweet shared more than 9,000 times. “The company has advertised three times on Tucker’s show tonight.”
Dozens of advertisers pulled support from Mr. Carlson’s program last year after he made controversial remarks about immigration, and others followed suit when audio emerged in March of earlier comments about women and child rape.
Bayer was among several advertisers that similarly abandoned “The Ingraham Angle” last year after its host criticized school shooting survivor and gun rights activist David Hogg, but the company reverse course within months and has been a regular advertiser ever since, Mr. Legum reported.
More recently, photo service Fracture pulled its ads from the show late last month after Ms. Ingraham spoke out against social media platforms censoring Paul Nehlen, a far-right perennial political candidate widely regarded as a white supremacist.
“Bayer last ran an ad on Carlson’s show on June 4 and last ran an ad on Ingraham’s show on May 30,” Mr. Legum reported, adding that the company “will not be returning to either program.”
Prior to cutting ties, Bayer was the second- and fifth-most frequent advertisers on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “The Ingraham Angle,” respectively, the Media Matters watchdog group reported.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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